How Is Santiago A Hero

“He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and into dullness that he mistrusted.”(74) Once both the fish and Santiago had reached the breaking point of conflict the story seemed to slow down in time to exemplify the adverse conditions that both characters were suffering from. The old man proves himself worthy of personal suffering with the cuts and scars on his hands and back along with all of the pulling and slipping the cords had upon his fragile body. Hemmingway shows in a big way how an out of proportioned conflict with an old fisherman and an 18 foot long marlin helps to magnify the significance of Santiago searching for his rebirth to manhood. With constant abstraction describing the fish and the sea in relation to brotherhood create interesting questions for Santiago to ponder. His rationalization for his fishing is that he was born to do it. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Hemmingway proves that this fish represents all of Santiago’s built up tension to total the size of a gigantic marlin that is perceived as devastating but not unconquerable. The old man’s hopes and aspirations can overcome the adversity of the marlin’s size, along with the conditions of the old, hungry, and exhausted fisherman. Through outright suffering Santiago achieves a goal above his previous manhood by combating pain and

Way before the concept of time existed, the human race faces an arsenal of challenges that life relentlessly fires at us. This rule to applies to everyone, no matter the race, gender, or appearance. While challenges are a tough time to get through, characters develop, grow, and prove their strength within them. From an adventures such as Santiago, a son of the god of the underworld, or God himself in the form of Jesus. Getting through your challenges is necessary to develop and better yourself.

Santiago’s attitude seems to be that although he faces difficulties, he finds the strength inside of him to be able to overcome them. Once he hooked the marlin, Santiago comes to a realization that he cannot kill the fish quickly. Though he is faced with a problem, the old man is able to find the best of the situation. He begins to form a bond with the marlin, as he repeatedly

From the beginning, the boy is very clearly in love with the old man. He practically worships him and considers him a hero to him. It is very strange for a book to have a character be so highly idolized at the beginning and have him not idolized any further at the end of the story. Some defining qualities a Code Hero should have are courage, honor, and discipline. Santiago quickly shows off these on the first full day fishing trip we experience with him. His courage to stay with the big fish while also honoring its feelings and its place in the sea as he is being dragged by it demonstrates him being the hero of the story. A little bit later in the story, when Santiago had been holding the line against his back for over a day now, the book said “He was still bearing the pull of the fish across his shoulders.” (Hemingway 76). Santiago stayed very calm while being dragged to distract his focus from the pain on his back. Showing grace under intense pressure is another important quality that makes a Code Hero who they are. Another example of this is shown in this quote: “He felt faint again now but he held on the great fish with all the strain he could.” (Hemingway 91). He was determined to catch this fish and he even said that he would die before the fish could ever get away while speaking to

Santiago is a man who surely has shown his dedication to his craft of fishing, which also shows his persistence. Throughout the entire novel he fights the overcome the various circumstances in his life and yet uses these struggles to grow as a person. Ultimately, Santiago is a great example in literature of perseverance no matter the circumstances.

“The Code Hero” “Old Man and the Sea” written by Ernest Hemingway is about Santiago, an old fisherman who goes 84 days without catching a fish. On the 85th day, Santiago goes out to sea and catches an 18 foot marlin. He has trouble reeling the fish in because it is so big. As days go by, Santiago is getting weaker and the marlin is getting attacked more and more. The sharks are multiplying and eating the fish do by the time Santiago gets back to shore, the only part that is left of the marlin is the carcass.

Throughout the whole book Santiago shows many signs of courage. In the beginning, Santiago gets in his boat and sails out into the sea. He usually stays near shore, like all the other boats. However, today “He elects to risk all by reaching beyond man’s reach by going ‘too far out”’ (a readers guide 192).   He is not a man with a lot of strength. He is very old and has to have someone help him do certain tasks. His hands are very brittle and there is times where he can not rely on them. They bleed and get stuck in the fist position when he does too much manual labor. Often times his left hand is what gives him the most trouble.  However, none of this ever stops him from doing what he believes in. Hemingway uses this quote to show readers that Santiago can still do anything he wants, “I will handle him with the right arm alone” (16). While his left hand is not much use, Santiago does not let that stop him from holding onto the line with only his right hand. In the end, after the fish dies he is finally on his way back home. With him being such full of courage “he did not need a compass to tell him where Southeast was. He only needed the feel of the trade winds” (Hemingway 27). He is not scared at all about getting lost. He knows exactly how to get himself home. He does not need anyone or anything telling him which direction he needs to travel. As he was relying on the trade winds he finally makes it back

Santiago demonstrates a Hemingway Code Hero here because he shows the ideal of poise and elegance in a chaotic situation. To add on, the old man also shows instances of grace under pressure while arm wrestling the negro at the tavern in Casablanca. Santiago and Cienfuegos, the strongest man on the docks, have been going at it for a full day, both of them in pain and exhausted. Suddenly the old man, “...unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro down and down until it rested on the wood” (70). The fight to win the match was difficult and chaotic, but Santiago stayed calm throughout it. He won in the end through his serene nature and demonstrates Code Hero qualities by being graceful under pressure. Next, after the first sunset, Santiago is telling himself that the fish will need to stop eventually for he could not pull the skiff forever when the old man states, "Fish," he said softly, aloud, "I'll stay with you until I am dead." (52). By saying this, Santiago is demonstrating a code heroes ideal of endurance.

Santiago is a Cuban fisherman who fights an endless war with conflicts. Santiago must understand he is not as young and able as he used to be. It is hard for him to realize his condition, in the end, it hurts him. Santiago also suffers from minor injuries like burns and cuts. These injuries draw out his task and cause immense pain. The hardest conflict Santiago faces is his thought process which leads to negativity and internal pain. Santiago grows connected with the marlin. This makes it difficult for him to understand how the experience was a victory. Throughout the story, Santiago conflicts not only with external forces but also with his own internal

He has lost reliance and thinks that his scarcity of fortune is responsible for not having caught a single fish in eighty-five days. The novel serves as a resemblance of Cuba's population situation, where they are by their own means of sustainability and, they don’t receive assistance like food stamps or subsidies from the government in charge. Santiago an elderly man from the workers' low class, is passing through a moment, that might not be the first in which he has not eaten for several days, besides, now it is more complicated since he has not the strength he had when he was a young fisherman that used to travel the world and, used to watch the lions playing at the shore of Africa's coasts. Although this man’s physique and body isn’t able of performing such crossings because, “Everything about him was old, except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated” (10), his courage and dauntlessness was ostensibly as his beliefs that were disclosed in his humble home, “(…) there was a picture in color of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and another of the Virgin of Cobre”

In Santiago, the central character of The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway created a “Code Hero” who personified endurance. In Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea , Santiago was an example of endurance when he was hunting the really big fish. While everyone has been fishing with there family or with there fishing crew , Santiago was out there in the sea catching big fishes alone. No one helped him , he was the oldest out there in the sea and did the job of what 3 people did by himself. Santiago had fished and killed a marlin that was 18 feet.Santiago faught the marlin and sharks even though he does not have alot of strength in him , he was in sever pain due to the ropes and was also even starving , but avoided the pain and continued doing

But perhaps the greatest figure of masculinity found in Hemingway’s work is Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea. He keeps his composure and maintains dignity after the fish that he has been fighting is lost to the sharks.

The balance between pride and modesty is one that Hemingway has learned to perfect over the course of The Old Man and the Sea. The audience can very easily see the delicate balance that humanity must find within its own world even by looking at a remote Chilean fishing village; although the audience does not live here, the elements of pride and modesty are so identifiable in the characters that the ideas become applicable in the everyday lives of the readers. Essentially, Hemingway has created a situation where the audience sees themselves within the novel as Santiago and the marlin, and in doing so, Hemingway has made the reader one step closer to understanding themselves and how they’re acts of pride and modesty fit into the natural

It is ambiguous whether the old man succeeds or fails. At first, it seems that if Santiago has failed. “He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind” (Hemingway 119). It is almost like he has lost everything that he has worked for. The old man accepts defeat as is, without mourning or grief Fortunately, after all the damage has been taken, he keeps fishing. He built some sort of relationship with the marlin, but was later broken. He has since moved on.

To Illustrate struggles, Hemingway uses a couple different methods. First, Santiago has had no luck catching a fish in eighty-four days. His record as a fisherman is poor at this point in the story and he is seen as a crazy old man, that nobody except Manolin wants to be around. Santiago being an old man creates a struggle in of itself because he is more tired and weaker than the other fishermen. He has been worn down by the years of fishing. Hemingway describes his hands with, “… deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.” (Hemingway, 8,9). The vivid description of his hands shows the wear and tear, that he has endured. This is only the first way, that Hemingway shows Santiago’s struggles.